DATA FOR MARCH Published April 23, Sales are up +36.0% month-over-month. The year-over-year comparison is up +3.1%. ARMLS STAT MARCH 2018

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1 Permission is granted only to ARMLS Subscribers for reproduction with attribution on to ARMLS COPYRIGHT For questions regarding this publication contact DATA FOR MARCH Published April 23, 2018 Sales are up +36.0% month-over-month. The year-over-year comparison is up +3.1%. Closed MLS sales with a close of escrow date from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed 1

2 New inventory is up +16.5% month-overmonth while the yearover-year comparison shows a decrease of -5.4%. New MLS listings that were active for at least one day from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed Total inventory has a month-over-month decrease of -0.3% while year-over-year reflects a decrease of -11.8%. Snapshot of statuses on 3/31/2018 2

3 March UCB listings percent of total inventory was 20.5% with March CCBS listings at 2.5% of total inventory.+6.7%.. Snapshot of statuses on 3/31/2018 Months supply of inventory for February was 3.15 with March at 2.31 Current inventory of Active/UCB/CCBS divided by the monthly sales volume of MARCH 2018, 0 day DOM sales removed 3

4 Average new list prices are up +8.8% year-overyear. The year-over-year median is up +7.7%. List prices of new listings with list dates from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed The average sales price is up +9.5% year-overyear while the year-overyear median sales price is also up +10.4%. MLS sales prices for closed listings with a close of escrow date from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed 4

5 A slight decrease is forecasted for average sales price while March is predicted to have a decrease in median sales price. ARMLS proprietary predictive model forecast, 0 day DOM sales removed Foreclosures pending month-over-month showed a decrease of -5.0% while the yearover-year figure was down -12.2%. Snapshot of public records data on 3/31/2018 active residential notices and residential REO properties. Note: this graph was adjusted as total foreclosure counts were under reported for the last 14 months. 5

6 Distressed sales accounted for 1.8% of total sales, down from the previous month of 2.2%. Short sales dropped -54.6% year-over-year. Lender owned sales dropped -37.3% yearover-year.7%.. New MLS listings that were active for at least one day from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed Days on market were down -6 days year-overyear while month-overmonth decreased by -4. MLS sales prices for closed listings with a close of escrow date from 3/1/2018 to 3/31/2018, 0 day DOM sales removed 6

7 COMMENTARY by Tom Ruff NAR s progressive action to redesign its 45-year-old logo has inspired me to take an equally daring step in the redesign of our STAT commentary. I ve decided to shake things up and instead of ending my commentary with the Pending Price Index, I m going to put it out front. I m certain you ll love this bold new approach. The ARMLS Pending Price Index (PPI) In the previous issue of STAT, we projected a median sales price for March of $250,900. The actual median sales price was $254,000. Our sales volume projection for March was 9,130 with actual sales coming in at 9,402. Looking ahead to April, the ARMLS Pending Price Index anticipates the median sales price will be $252,500. It should be noted that through the first three months of 2018, we underestimated both median price and sales volume. Our market has been hotter than our mathematical models anticipated. I suspect our forecasted median will again undershoot the reported median in April. A median price of $255,000 or slightly higher seems reasonable. Sales volume for the first three months of 2018 was 4.25% higher than 2017, with 22,395 sales in 2018 compared to 21,483 in We begin April with 7,261 pending contracts, 4,487 UCB listings and 571 CCBS giving us a total of 12,319 residential listings practically under contract. This compares to 12,789 of the same type of listings one year ago. ARMLS reported 8,666 sales in April of With one more business day this year than last, I expect 2018 volume to be higher. We have 21 business days this year compared to 20 last year. Our best guess for April is that sales volume will be in the 9,000 range. 7

8 Last month we projected the average sales price for March to be $336,500. This was clearly a mistake in our programmed algorithim due to an error that we have since identified and fixed. Sales Price Forecast from February STAT The average sales prices for the last 18 years are listed below. We project the average sales price in April to be $319,900, a much more reasonable number than the March forecast. 8

9 Average Sales Price for the Past 10 Years 9

10 First Quarter Recap In an industry where an individual agent s income is commissioned based, but taboo to discuss, the total sales dollar volume for any given period is our best measurement for determining the cumulative financial success of ARMLS subscribers. With the positive March report, the total dollar sales volume for the first quarter of 2018 was the highest on record. If you liked the 2017 reported sales of $6,138,024,003, you ll love the 2018 volume of $7,021,141,181. In the first quarter of this year we saw a 14.39% increase in total dollar volume. While STAT is reporting a March volume just slightly below $3 billion, Michael Orr of the Cromford Report reported residential sales through ARMLS exceeding $3 billion. Orr further reports it was only the third time a single month had exceeded $3 billion in home sales. The two previous months were nearly 13 years ago in June and August of The difference between STAT and Cromford s calculations is not one involving math but is reflective of the time at which the measurements were taken. Whether slightly above or slightly below $3 billion, March was a very good month for our subscribers. If you have followed my commentary for a period of years, you ll know that I see March as a bellwether month. If my axiom holds true, 2018 is going to be another great year for the real estate community. 10

11 Total Dollar Sales Volume by Year as Reported by ARMLS 11

12 Is the Median Resale Home Price in Maricopa County Setting a New Standard? When we turn to public records data we see the all-time high median sale price for resale homes in Maricopa County occurred in May 2006 at $253,418. In the following spreadsheet, we display sales volume by month/ year, the median sales price for the first quarter, the median sales price and the median for the third quarter and the year-over-year percentage change for these prices. I will not go as far as saying we are back to peak prices, there are just too many other variables to consider. However, when the April sales are publicly recorded, we ll most likely see the highest resale home median sales price ever reported. The highest median sales price ever reported by ARMLS occurred in June of 2006 when the median sales price topped at $264,800. ARMLS numbers include properties that sold on the MLS in both Maricopa and Pinal counties, as well as some newly built homes. 12

13 Maricopa County Public Records Sales Data 13

14 A Follow Up on Cerberus Last month in STAT we briefly discussed Cerberus, a new institutional investor securing single family homes with the intent to rent. In February they purchased 223 homes in Maricopa County, followed by 263 in March. Most of their purchases have been in Phoenix, Glendale and Tempe. It appears they want to be near the center of the Valley. In his April 5th daily observation, Michael Orr made a note-worthy observation. 14

15 Anything single-detached below $275K is now extremely hard to find, and remember the above numbers are for the whole of Greater Phoenix. In the more central areas the supply is negligible. *footnote: Early reports for Cerberus s April purchases show a dramatic drop off from the February and March numbers. Through April 12th only 19 purchases have been recorded. Conclusion Since I announced the evolution of STAT and the new PPI placement earlier in this commentary, I have received a diversity of opinions that ranged from this is great to something is really really really wrong with you. I can t tell you how much I appreciate your input. Although the issues that drove me to reevaluate where PPI appears in the commentary will always exist, I may have been hasty in implementing the change. Next month, PPI will return to its historical placement. Having been freed from design evolution, I can now spend more time coming up with actual thought provoking commentary. I might even go as far as contemplating the impact of Zillow, the new ibuyer coming to our market. 15